It is required to provide a framework for an automated process for forming a visually appealing collage from a plurality of input images. Forming such a collage is a difficult problem especially as the number of input images increases and when it is required to produce a collage that acts as a type of visual image summary which is appealing to the viewer. In addition, it is difficult to provide a framework for this type of automated process which is flexible and robust and which can easily be interfaced to a related software application.
Manual methods of generating an image tapestry or image collage are known. For example, by manually segmenting and combining a collection of consumer photographs. These photographs may be manually cropped and combined to form a manually generated tapestry such as by using commercial image editing software. However, this is time consuming and requires significant skill and knowledge on the part of the user.
Previous automated approaches have relied on using images to be assembled that are already broadly compatible, by being approximately matched along the seams. Only adjustment of the seams is then required to make the seams invisible. However, it is required to use images that may not already be broadly compatible.